"The Boatman's Dance" is a

minstrel A minstrel was an entertainer, initially in medieval Europe. It originally described any type of entertainer such as a musician, juggler, acrobat, singer or fool; later, from the sixteenth century, it came to mean a specialist entertainer who ...

song credited to

Dan Emmett Daniel Decatur Emmett (October 29, 1815June 28, 1904) was an American songwriter, entertainer, and founder of the first troupe of the blackface minstrel tradition, the Virginia Minstrels. He is most remembered as the composer of the song "Dixie ...

in 1843. In 1950 it was revived and arranged by

Aaron Copland Aaron Copland (, ; November 14, 1900December 2, 1990) was an American composer, composition teacher, writer, and later a conductor of his own and other American music. Copland was referred to by his peers and critics as "the Dean of American Com ...

as part of his set of ''

Old American Songs ''Old American Songs'' are two sets of songs arranged by Aaron Copland in 1950 and 1952 respectively, after research in the Sheet Music Collection of the Harris Collection of American Poetry and Plays, in the John Hay Library at Brown Universit ...

''. It is a celebration of the

Ohio River The Ohio River is a long river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing southwesterly from western Pennsylvania to its mouth on the Mississippi River at the southern tip of Illino ...

boatmen, bawdy and wily, and is easily recognizable by its repeated clarion cry: "Hey, ho, the boatman row, sailin' on the river on the Ohio." The song went through numerous revisions before a settled version passed into the repertoire. Both the minstrel version and the Copland arrangement are widely performed and recorded. The bluegrass jam band

Yonder Mountain String Band The Yonder Mountain String Band is an American progressive bluegrass group from Nederland, Colorado. Composed of Dave Johnston, Ben Kaufmann, Adam Aijala, and Nick Piccininni, the band has released five studio albums and several live recordings t ...

regularly covers it and released a studio version as a hidden track on their release '' Town By Town''.

External links

Audio (mp3 and .ram)
performed by

Thomas Hampson Thomas Walter Hampson (born June 28, 1955) is an American lyric baritone, a classical singer who has appeared world-wide in major opera houses and concert halls and made over 170 musical recordings. Hampson's operatic repertoire spans a range ...

and

Wolfram Rieger Wolfram Rieger is a German classical pianist, who is known internationally as accompanist of singers and in chamber music. Training Born in Waldsassen, Rieger received his first piano lessons from his parents and later from Konrad Pfeiffer in R ...

. Songs about boats Songs about sailors Songs about dancing Blackface minstrel songs 1843 songs Songs written by Dan Emmett Music of Pittsburgh {{song-stub